CARRY ON

Finding Dad

Sam and Dean head downstairs.
"I mean, come on. You can't just break in, middle of the night, and expect me to hit the road with you." Sam said as they walk the stairwell.
"You're not hearing me, Sammy. Dad's missing. I need you to help me find him." Dean spoke.
"You remember the poltergeist in Amherst? Or the Devil's Gates in Clifton?" Sam asked catching up to Dean. "He was missing then, too. He's always missing, and he's always fine." Sam said. Dean stops and turns around. Sam stops too.
"Not for this long." Dean said. "Now are you gonna come with me or not?" He asked. Sam shook his head looking away.
"I'm not." Sam said looking back at Dean.
"Why not?" Dean asked.
"I swore I was done hunting." Sam informed. "For good." He emphasized.
"Come on. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't that bad." Dean said. Dean starts downstairs again. Sam follows.
"Yeah? When I told Dad I was scared of the thing in my closet, he gave me a .45." Sam argued. Dean stops at the door to the outside. He really didn't want to argue. He just wanted John back.
"Well, what was he supposed to do?" Dean looked at Sam.
"I was nine years old! He was supposed to say, don't be afraid of the dark." Sam said:
"Don't be afraid of the dark? Are you kidding me?" Dean said not believing his brother. "Of course you should be afraid of the dark. You know what's out there." Dean shook his head.
"Yeah, I know, but still." Sam said. "The way we grew up, after Mom was killed, and Dad's obsession to find the thing that killed her." Dean glances outside."But we still haven't found the damn thing. So we kill everything we can find." Sam shook his head.
"We save a lot of people doing it, too." Dean looked at Sam. A pause.
"You think Mom would have wanted this for us?" Sam asked. Dean rolls his eyes and slams the door open.

There's a short flight of stairs from the door to the parking lot. Dean and Sam climb it.
"The weapon training, and melting the silver into bullets? Man, Dean, we were raised like warriors." Sam said.
They cross the parking lot to the Impala from the prologue.
"So what are you gonna do?" Dean asked. "You're just gonna live some normal, apple pie life? Is that it?" Dean looked at Sam questioningly.
"No. Not normal. Safe." Sam gritted his teeth.
"And that's why you ran away." Dean looks away.
"I was just going to college. It was Dad who said if I was gonna go I should stay gone. And that's what I'm doing." Sam explained.
"Yeah, well, Dad's in real trouble right now. If he's not dead already. I can feel it." Dean looked back at Sam. Sam is silent. "I can't do this alone." Dean said calmly.
"Yes you can." Dean looks down.
"Yeah, well, I don't want to." Dean said. Sam sighs and looks down, thinking, then up.
"What was he hunting?" Sam asked.

Dean opens the trunk of the Impala, then the spare-tire compartment. It's an arsenal. He props the compartment open with a shotgun and digs through the clutter.
"All right, let's see, where the hell did I put that thing?" Dean asked himself.
"So when Dad left, why didn't you go with him?" Sam inquired.
"I was working my own gig. This, uh, voodoo thing, down in New Orleans." Dean smirked.
"Dad let you go on a hunting trip by yourself?" Sam raised a brow. Dean looks over at Sam.
"I'm twenty-six, dude." Dean pulls some papers out of a folder. "All right, here we go. So Dad was checking out this two-lane blacktop just outside of Jericho, California. About a month ago, this guy." Dean hands one of the papers to Sam. "They found his car, but he vanished. Completely MIA." Dean explained. The paper is a printout of an article from the Jericho Herald, headlined "Centennial Highway Disappearance" and dated Sept. 19th 2005; it has a man's picture, captioned "Andrew Carey MISSING". Sam reads it and glances up.

"So maybe he was kidnapped." Sam tried to think of the obvious.
"Yeah. Well, here's another one in April." Dean tosses down another Jericho Herald article for each date he mentions. "Another one in December 'oh-four, 'oh-three, 'ninety-eight, 'ninety-two, ten of them over the past twenty years." Dean takes the article back from Sam and picks up the rest of the stack, putting them back in the folder. "All men, all the same five-mile stretch of road." Dean pulls a bag out of another part of the arsenal.
"It started happening more and more, so Dad went to go dig around. That was about three weeks ago. I hadn't heard from him since, which is bad enough." Dean grabs a handheld tape recorder. "Then I get this voicemail yesterday." He presses play. The recording is staticky and the signal was clearly breaking up.
"Dean...something big is starting to happen...I need to try and figure out what's going on. It may... Be very careful, Dean. We're all in danger." John said on the recording. Dean presses stop.
"You know there's EVP on that?" Sam asked.
"Not bad, Sammy. Kinda like riding a bike, isn't it?" Dean smiled. Sam shakes his head. "All right. I slowed the message down, I ran it through a gold wave, took out the hiss, and this is what I got." He presses play again.
"I can never go home..." They hear a woman say. Dean presses stop.
"Never go home." Sam repeats.

Dean drops the recorder, puts down the shotgun, stands straight, and shuts the trunk, then leans on it.
"You know, in almost two years I've never bothered you, never asked you for a thing." Dean said. Sam looks away and sighs, then looks back.
"All right. I'll go. I'll help you find him." Sam said. Dean nods.
"But I have to get back first thing Monday. Just wait here." Sam turns to go back to the apartment. He turns back when Dean speaks.
"What's first thing Monday?" Dean asked confused.
"I have this...I have an interview." Sam tried to explain.
"What, a job interview? Skip it." Dean said.
"It's a law school interview, and it's my whole future on a plate." Sam explained.
"Law school?" Dean smirks.
"So we got a deal or not?" Sam asked.
Dean says nothing.

Sam is packing a duffel bag. He pulls out a large hook-shaped knife and slides it inside. Jess comes into the room.
"Wait, you're taking off?" Jess asked.
Sam looks up. "Is this about your dad? Is he all right?" Jess asked.
"Yeah. You know, just a little family drama." Sam said. Sam goes over to the dresser and turns on the lamp atop it.
"Your brother said he was on some kind of hunting trip." Jess sits on the bed. Sam rummages in one of the drawers and comes out with a couple shirts, which go in the duffel.
"Oh, yeah, he's just deer hunting up at the cabin, he's probably got Jim, Jack, and José along with him. I'm just going to go bring him back." Sam informed.
"What about the interview?" She asked.
"I'll make the interview. This is only for a couple days." He promised. Sam goes around the bed. Jess gets up and follows.
"Sam, I mean, please." Sam stops and turns. "Just stop for a second. You sure you're okay?" She asked. Sam laughs a little.
"I'm fine." He reassured.
"It's just...you won't even talk about your family. And now you're taking off in the middle of the night to spend a weekend with them? And with Monday coming up, which is kind of a huge deal." Jess said.
"Hey. Everything's going to be okay. I will be back in time, I promise." He kisses her on the cheek and leaves.